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6C - LCA and Economics: Input/Output Analysis (TU2/1) Application of LCA and IO-LCA to the pasta case study. Bruno, Notarnicola1, Ignazio, Mongelli1, Giuseppe, Nicoletti2, 1 University of Bari, Bari, Puglia, Italy2 University of Foggia, Foggia, Puglia, Italy ABSTRACT- Input-Output analysis has been recently introduced as a method to account for environmental burdens associated with a product life cycle. This top-down technique refers to economic intersectoral matrices, consequently the entire economy is taken as the system of the study, without needing the use of cut-off criteria to establish system boundaries as necessarily done in LCA studies. Although this apparent completeness of the results obtained with IO-LCA, the use of monetary flows to simulate physical flows leads to several limitations due to the uncertainty, homogeneity and degree of aggregation of statistical data, which, on the contrary, are quite well solved in the LCA framework. Because of this shortcomings, in this paper the two approaches will be applied to the same case study in order to verify if the adoption of both could improve the quality of results. Moreover the results will be compared with those obtained by applying the hybrid approach. For this purpose, the life cycle of pasta has been considered. The choice of this product is based on the Italian relevance in this sector, since Italy is the biggest worldwide producer of pasta, with about one third of the total supply. Key words: IO-LCA, LCA, pasta |
